Exhibition: John Claude White (1853-1918)

[Michael Wong]

Having achieved an impressive hammer price for an album of rare Tibetian photos at a recent Bonhams auction as reported here, there is now an on-going exhibition of this British civil servant's work.

A British Life in a Mountain Kingdom: Early Photographs of Sikkim and Bhutan is the first exhibition of photographs by John Claude White (1853-1918), presented in original prints and large-scale reproductions from two important albums on view. White, a British government officer and civil engineer, spent much of his career stationed in places that one hundred years ago were, and to an extent still remain, shrouded in a certain veil of mystery: India, Nepal, Sikkim, Tibet and Bhutan.

White travelled extensively in the region on surveying expeditions and where he indulged his passion for photography, in so doing leaving behind one of the richest and most detailed accounts of the scenery and culture of the Himalayas. He published his memoir Sikhim and Bhutan: Twenty-one Years on the North-East Frontier in London in 1909.

For those who cannot quite make it to NYC for the exhibition, there is a book covering his life and works by Kurt Meyer and Pamela Deuel entitled "In the Shadow of the Himalayas: Tibet - Bhutan - Nepal - Sikkim A Photographic Record by John Claude White 1883-1908". (Click on the Amazon link on the right for more information.)

Details of the exhibition can be found here.